I recently had a chance to read the first volume of "Black Hammer." This is one of those series I kept hearing about on various podcasts and in various blogs. I was able to grab a copy and I was definitely not disappointed!

Black Hammer tells the story of several superheroes from the Golden Age who find themselves trapped in a small town. While battling a villain and saving the town, one of the heroes named Black Hammer sacrifices himself to destroy the villain and save everyone else.

But somehow our heroes are trapped. As far as they can tell, everyone else can come and go, but they are trapped, and they have been for 10 years. This volume tells their story as they are continuing to try to find their place in this town after all this time. While doing this, we get an issue about each of the characters and how they became the hero they are.

There is the shape-shifting Martian, the woman who has the powers of a wizard but is trapped in the body of a young girl, a witch, a super strong hero and a captain who has been pulled into an alternate world.

While I was in the middle of reading this, I saw that it was nominated for the Eisner Award, which is absolutely deserving. Not only is the art great, the story being told is tremendous. All of these heroes are hiding their identities from the town, but they don't necessarily get along. It's not a "wacky sitcom" situation, but rather it feels real. All of these personalities trapped together would start to clash at some point.

This is one that I highly recommend. If you get the opportunity to read it, jump on it!